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Best Local Artwork to Save

Hamtramck Disneyland

When Dmytro Szylak retired from General Motors in 1992, he began installing whirligigs and fanciful sculptures in his backyard. Over the years, they grew and became a massive, colorful attraction he called "Hamtramck Disneyland." But since Szylak died at 92 in May 2015, the future of the artwork has been in a sort of limbo. A group of Hamtramck residents, including Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski, writer Walter Wasacz, Chris Schneider, and others, had been working with the new property owner to try to work out a plan whereby the mammoth artwork can be preserved. Those efforts haven't paid off yet, but they continue, and may even involved heavy-hitting nonprofits dedicated to preserving folk art. Anybody interested in helping should see the SAVE Hamtramck Disneyland page on Facebook.